Dr. Marija Bingulac is the Senior Community Development Analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She helped to frame the purpose of our forum, presenting a summary of the "Color of Wealth" report published in 2015 that made the startling claim that White families in Boston had, on average, $247,500 in wealth, and that Black families in Boston had, on average, only $8 in wealth.

Dr. Karilyn Crockett is the Director of Economic Policy and Research for Small Business Development at the City of Boston. Her office is responsible for implementing the "Promoting Equity in City of Boston" ordinance discussed by Councilor Pressley. Here, she presents both her role in fulfilling the intent of the ordinance, as well as discussing the day-to-day work of her office.

Peter Hurst is the President & CEO of the Greater New England Minority Supplier Development Council. The GNEMSDC works to connect minority businesses to opportunities in procurement services and other business areas. Mr. Hurst discussed the work of GNEMSDC under his leadership and how investment in minority businesses can help close the racial wealth gap in the Commonwealth.

Ayanna Pressley has served as an At-Large Boston City Councilor since 2009, becoming the first African-American woman elected to that position in the Council's 108-year history. She, along with Councilor Michelle Wu, introduced and passed an ordinance that codified ways for the city to make contracts and procurement opportunities available to minority- and women-owned businesses.

Kenn Turner is the Director of Diversity & Inclusion Compliance at the Massachusetts Port Authority. Mr. Turner discussed the importance of collaboration between Executive leadership and Board members. By working with L. Duane Jackson - a Massport Board member - Massport adopted the state's most progressive major contractor requirements - a minimum of 25% must be allocated to a MBE partner.

Greg Janey is President and CEO of Janey Construction Management and Consulting, and John Moriarty is Founder and President of John Moriarty & Associates, Inc. Both shared stories of rising to the top of their fields and the importance of relationships. Because of past encounters, the two work together on major projects, helping Janey Co. scale up and provide additional opportunities for the community.

Bob Rivers serves as the Chairman & CEO of Eastern Bank. Mr. Rivers discussed the important work of Eastern Bank's "Business Equity Initiative," which seeks to "mitigate growing inequality by combining business growth, supplier partnerships, and community transformative development as a means of addressing growing wealth and income inequality in Massachusetts."

Following their presentations, each guest speaker joined a panel. Moderator and BECMA board member, Richard Taylor, engaged them in deeper discussion about their work and how the city and Commonwealth can adopt the strategies and efforts discussed previously.

Dr. Marija Bingulac - Senior Analyst, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Dr. Marija Bingulac is the Senior Community Development Analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. She supports the Household Economic Security and Equity focal area of Regional & Community Outreach, which pursues three goals: reducing the racial wealth gap, increasing family resiliency, and reducing the overreliance on debt.

For the decade before she joined the Bank in 2017, Dr. Bingulac worked at the nexus of applied research and community engagement on issues of poverty alleviation, housing stability and homelessness, economic mobility, and discrimination, with the focus on low/moderate-income and historically marginalized communities—both domestically and internationally.

She earned her PhD from the McCormack Graduate School of Global and Policy Studies at UMASS Boston, where her dissertation focused on labor market discrimination of Roma people in Serbia.

Councilor Ayanna Pressley - At-Large City Councilor, City of Boston

Ayanna Pressley was first elected to the Boston City Council on November 3, 2009, becoming the first woman of color ever elected to the Council. In her subsequent 2011 and 2013 reelection campaigns, Pressley made history as the first person of color and the first woman in 30 years to top the ticket.

During her time in office, Pressley created and chairs the City Council’s Committee on Healthy Women, Families, and Communities. The Committee is devoted to the causes that she has always been most devoted to: stabilizing families and communities, reducing and preventing violence and trauma, combating poverty, and addressing issues that disproportionately impact women and girls.

Understanding that neighborhood restaurants are community anchors, job creators, and engines of economic development, Pressley spent two years successfully advocating for reform to the State’s outdated liquor license laws. In 2014, Pressley advanced a version of her home rule petition through the State Legislature, returning control of the Licensing Board to the City for the first time in more than 100 years and providing 75 new licenses to the City over three years, with 80% of those licenses restricted to the neighborhoods most in need.

Dr. Karilyn Crockett’s research focuses on large-scale land use changes in twentieth century American cities and examines the social and geographic implications of structural poverty. Karilyn’s dissertation entitled, “ 'People Before Highways:' Reconsidering Routes to and from the Boston Anti-Highway Movement” investigates a 1960s era grassroots movement to halt urban extension of the interstate highway system.

Prior to graduate school, Karilyn co-founded Multicultural Youth Tour Of What's Now (MYTOWN), an award winning, educational non-profit organization. A Boston organization, MYTOWN hired public high school students to research their local and family histories to produce youth-led walking tours for sale to public audiences. During its nearly 15 years of operation, MYTOWN created jobs for more than 300 low and moderate-income teenagers, who in turn led public walking tours for more than 14,000 visitors and residents. In a White House ceremony, the National Endowment for the Humanities cited MYTOWN as “One of ten best Youth Humanities Programs in America.”

Karilyn holds a PhD from the American Studies program at Yale University, a Master of Science in Geography from the London School of Economics, and a Master of Arts and Religion from Yale Divinity School. She is a research affiliate in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning at MIT. Her career mission is to work at the nexus of education, economic development and urban revitalization.

Kenn Turner joined Massport’s senior leadership team in 2013 as Director of Diversity & Inclusion/Compliance. Mr. Turner has a distinguished background in the public and private sectors as well as an illustrious and decorated career with the U.S. Navy. He worked for Hasbro, Inc. and Hallmark Cards, Inc. and was a Senior Vice President of AOL Time Warner. Most recently he was the Commonwealth’s Deputy Secretary for Administration & Finance for the Department of Veterans’ Services.

As a US Navy Officer, Mr. Turner served for six years on active duty in the submarine force and for 20 years in the reserves. He retired as a highly decorated Captain. He is a graduate of Southern University and A&M College in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Turner resides in Randolph, MA and he is responsible for the Compliance and Diversity & Inclusion functions.

Peter F. Hurst Jr. took over as President and CEO of GNEMSDC in 2015 after serving in that role on an interim basis for two months. GNEMSDC was incorporated in 1975 and serves the six New England states — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. It advances business opportunities for certified Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American business enterprises, and connects them to corporate members.

Before joining GNEMSDC, Hurst practiced law for almost five years and served as an investment banker on Wall Street with a focus on mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance. He also ran his own boutique financial advisory firm for 11 years and established the only minority-owned bank in Connecticut for 12 years.

Under Hurst’s leadership, GNEMSDC produced a successful Business Opportunity Conference & Expo in Connecticut, “Scaling up Supplier Diversity and Diverse Businesses.” GNEMSDC also operates two MBDA Business Centers, which are funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA). Hurst is also proud of the GNEMSDC Advanced Leadership Program and the Community Capital/GNEMSDC BondSure Program, which helps minority contractors obtain performance bonds.

Greg Janey - President and CEO, Janey Construction Management and Consulting, and John Moriarty - President and Founder, John Moriarty & Associates, Inc.

Greg Janey was born and raised in Roxbury, MA and attended public schools in Boston. He has over 30 years of experience in the construction field, a bachelor’s degree in construction management from Wentworth Institute of Technology, and a master’s in civil engineering from Northeastern University.

Janey has played a key role in projects that have ranged from $5m to $2.1b in size. He was elected to the Wentworth Corporation in 2008 and to the Institute’s Board of Trustees in 2012. Janey served as a founding officer for the Massachusetts Minority Contractors Association, and on the advisory committees for Madison Park High School and the Private Industry Council. He is a past president of the Massachusetts division of the Construction Management Association of America and a member of the CMAA’s national board. He is also a program evaluator for ABET, which accredits college and university programs in applied science, computing, engineering, and engineering technology.

As President and Founder of John Moriarty & Associates, Inc., John Moriarty has guided the firm’s impressive growth since 1985. John graduated from Johns Hopkins University.

Bob Rivers - President & CEO, Eastern Bank

Bob Rivers is Vice Chairman of Eastern Bank Corporation and President and Chief Operating Officer of Eastern Bank, the largest independent bank headquartered in Massachusetts, and the oldest and largest mutual bank in the United States, with almost $9 billion in assets and 114 offices, where he is directly responsible for all lines of business. In addition, he is Chairman of Eastern Insurance Group, a wholly-owned agency subsidiary.

Bob began his 32-year banking career as a teller at Randolph Savings Bank in his hometown of Stoughton, Massachusetts, followed by various roles of increasing responsibility at Old Stone Bank in Rhode Island, M&T Bank in New York, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, and Commercial Federal Bank in Nebraska.

He is involved extensively in the community, serving on several non-profit boards in Boston, and on the South Shore and Merrimack Valley. Named after the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy, Bob’s passion for advocating for social justice causes and sustainability issues and his work in championing greater board and senior management diversity has been recognized by The Boston Globe, The Partnership, Get Konnected!, Color Magazine, the Massachusetts Immigration & Refugee Advocacy Coalition, the Asian American Civic Association, ALPFA, and El Planeta.